


Designers, Keepers

by baridalive



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: (kind of?), Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Alternate Universe - Video Game World, Kissing, M/M, Party, it's just making out with a bit of sci-fi, jaemin's just here to have fun and save his planet, mark is a video game designer, markmin nation rise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-23
Updated: 2019-12-23
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:15:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,084
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21913531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baridalive/pseuds/baridalive
Summary: Coincidences happen all the time, but when Jaemin shows up in Mark's life looking just a little too similar to a character in his game, Mark gets concerned (and rightfully so, especially when everything else starts going haywire)
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Lee Jeno, Mark Lee/Na Jaemin
Comments: 12
Kudos: 177
Collections: DreamXmas 2019





	Designers, Keepers

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tokyomew](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tokyomew/gifts).



> this one's for you thy :D i'm sorry for getting it to you so late, but it's here and it's finished! there's so much more i wish i could have done with this concept if i had more time, but for now, i'm pretty happy with it and i hope you like it too, love! (and let's ignore that little issue of me going off-prompt a little bit okay? okay.) happy holidays!
> 
> (this is unbeta'd because i didn't want to bother my sister lfkjsdklfj)

Mark loves his job, he swears. Being a videogame designer has been his dream ever since he was a little boy, playing old PS4 Mario Bros with Jeno on the floor of their living room, and knowing that he can inspire kids the same way fulfills his dream.

Like any job, though, it comes with its difficulties. For a lot of the designers Mark has talked to, it’s coming up with good landscapes or effects or layout, but for Mark, it’s the characters. It always has been. 

He’s in the process of developing a new game,  _ Jet Lag _ is the working title, but he’s having trouble with one specific character. Mark knows everything that the character does and says, but he can’t figure out what he wants them to look like because nothing he does seems quite right. At first, he was dead set on having them as a female—he nicknamed the character Mina for a while, after his cat—but the subtlety of the love interest that he was trying to imply between them and the main character came off too strong in the stupid heteronormative world that Mark lives in. There would end up being this whole weird, yet nonexistent, romantic subplot that people would try and real too deep into, and it would muddle the already significant complexities of the main adventure.

Mark can’t even find flaws that fit the character, and it’s frustrating him to no end. At first, he thought it would be their pride, but that doesn’t work out with how easily they ask the main character for help on the mission. Between that and the looks, Mark has been struggling with this character for weeks now, unable to move on or make progress until he finishes. He’s ten seconds away from sucking it up and calling an old friend of his who’s now a big-time author living in Chicago—Johnny would give him endless shit for asking for help, but his advice is always worth it—when his phone rings.

Turning away from his monitors for what’s probably the first time in hours, he glances over to see that the incoming call is from his brother, Jeno. Mina decides this is a great time to walk right across Mark’s keyboard as he’s reaching over to pick up the call, and he ends up juggling a twenty-five pound mammal and an android for a few moments before he gets ahold of them both enough to press accept.

“Hey, Jeno—” He starts.

_ “Mark,” _ a whiny voice draws out his name through the receiver,  _ “you promised you’d be here!” _ The bass-heavy music pumping in the background triggers Mark’s memory and he swears aloud.

“Oh, shit, Jen, I’ll be there in thirty.” In typical Mark fashion, he’s gotten caught up in his work again for long enough to forget about an important event. This time it’s Jeno’s housewarming party, which Mark had told him was going to be more of a house-destroying party, but Jeno had just shrugged at the time and told him ‘all the better!’

_ “Good! Hyuck’s here and he’s been annoying me about not having a beer pong partner since we arrived.” _

“Tell your husband to shut up and I’ll be there shortly, okay?” Mark scratches just behind Mina’s left ear to make her purr before he gently puts her down on the floor.

_ “I will tell my husband no such thing, Mark Lee,” _ Jeno exaggerates a gasp.  _ “How could you?” _

“You two are a perfect match,” Mark sighs, rolling his eyes even though Jeno can’t see it. Donghyuck is the actual devil in Mark’s opinion, and despite them being best friends through primary school and him literally marrying his younger brother, nothing will ever change Mark’s mind on the subject. “But I’m sorry, Jeno. I didn’t mean to forget.”

_ “It’s no problem, Markie, I know you get caught up with your work. Why do you think I called you?”  _ His words are a little less slurred now, and Mark can only hope that Donghyuck is nearby to take care of him because anyone who has known Jeno for long can attest to the fact that he can’t hold his liquor for the life of him.

“Just try not to get completely plastered before I show up, yeah? Otherwise you won’t remember me crushing your ass at beer pong later.”

_ “No promises,” _ Jeno sing-songs.  _ “See you soon!” _

Mark hangs up and looks back at his monitors with an awfully exaggerated sigh for being alone in his apartment, save for Mina who’s pawing at her food bowl in the kitchen by the sound of it.

The blank face of the character—Mark is now highly debating naming them just “the bane of my existence” and moving on—stares back at him mockingly through the screen. That’s when an idea hits Mark so hard he nearly falls out of his chair.

There was a game he started developing years ago, one of his very first projects as a teenager that he didn’t so much as scrap but put on indefinite hiatus, that had suddenly come to mind. Mark had put it on hold because it ended up something more of a character study for this one boy than anything else, and at least at the time, that wasn’t what he wanted to do. However, as he digs through his old files and comes across the set of screenshots he took to keep track of his progress for the old project. The moment he sets eyes on it again, he knows it’s perfect. 

In a few short minutes, Mark has given the blank face on his screen wide, sparkling eyes, cropped pink hair, and a dazzling smile to match. If Mark is being honest, they’re still far from perfect, and he wishes that he could stay at home to work on them, but he has to go. 

As he saves the file, he squints a little harder at the eyes, trying to place why they look so familiar. The other thing that catches his eye is what Mina must have typed when she walked over the keyboard. “NANA,” a textbox now reads, but he doesn’t have the time to worry about that because he’s late enough for Jeno’s party as is.

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


As expected, the Lee couple’s new penthouse is absolutely packed when Mark finally arrives. He had been to the place already because both apparently Mark is the one person that Jeno and Donghyuck trust to have any sense and he already lived in the area so they had free reign to drag him house-hunting at their pleasure. Mark may or may not be guilty of never being able to say no to them.

The cranked-up bass of the music, which is surely Donghyuck’s doing, rattles the floor of the penthouse when Mark finally steps a foot inside. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of people all packed into the penthouse, and Mark can only be glad that they chose to buy the bigger one.

He’s on his way to the kitchen when a hand grips his shoulder. Mark spins around, ready to confront the person, but he relaxes with a grin when he sees Donghyuck standing there in all his smokey-eyed glory.

“You’re late for your brother’s party, jackass,” Donghyuck yells over the music. Mark makes a mental note to fix Jeno’s music taste. Or maybe it’s Donghyuck’s. Either way, the note has been made.

“Yeah, well I was about to call your brother before Jeno called me,” Mark calls back in an effort to provoke him.

“You would’ve called  _ Johnny _ before you came to  _ our _ party?” Donghyuck looks affronted, and Mark has to laugh.

“It’s good to see you too, Hyuck,” is what he strategically chooses to reply with, giving his best friend a hug before looking around at the packed penthouse. “This is giving me war flashbacks to the parties that my frat brothers threw back in college,” Mark bemoans.

“Yukhei’s parties weren’t  _ that _ bad,” Donghyuck replies, wrinkling his nose at the memories. “They just tended to have a more questionable alcohol selection.”

“Oh, no, I’m talking about Jungwoo’s parties.”

“Ah.” Donghyuck grimaces with understanding. “And suddenly I see your point.”

The sound of something smashing comes from off to their left, and Mark winces. All he can hope is that everyone has shoes on.

“You two are lucky you’re rich,” Mark whistles, raising an eyebrow as he finally takes in the damage that’s already been done to their new home.

“Nah, Jeno’s just lucky he’s cute.”

“You love him, though.”

“I do,” Donghyuck says with enough sincerity that it hits Mark square in the lungs. “I’m gonna go try and find him now to make sure he doesn’t drink anything more. You know how he is with alcohol.” And with that and a wink, Donghyuck pushes his way through the crowd and disappears.

Mark has never been jealous of the love that Jeno and Donghyuck have shared. It’s a special, once-in-a-lifetime thing that Mark thinks is one of the most beautiful things he’s ever seen, even though he’d never be caught dead admitting it to either of them. It wasn’t even a surprise when they got engaged right out of school and married not long after, with Mark taking the role of both of their best men since Johnny couldn’t make it for the ceremony. Just knowing that his little brother and childhood best friend are stupidly in love and take care of each other warms his heart, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.

An arm finds its way around Mark’s waist not long after Donghyuck leaves, and he turns to the side to be met with the sight of a slightly tipsy Jeno.

“You made it!” He grins as he slings both arms around Mark to pull him into a proper hug. “I was hoping it was you and not someone else… that might have raised some questions. Anyway! Here you go!”

Jeno shoves a red solo cup into Mark’s hand without any warning, and Mark wonders exactly how he managed to hug him while holding that not even seconds ago. In the end, he doesn’t even have the chance to question it because Jeno’s already rambling on.

“I have someone I want you to meet, though. He’s around here somewhere I swear…” Jeno trails off, his eyes turning into crescents as he smiles, turning to Mark. “I really think you’ll like him, Mark.”

“Jeno,” Mark sighs, rubbing the bridge of his nose with his free hand. “You need to stop trying to set me up with your friends. I don’t have time for this and you know it.”

“Or… how about you be quiet and let your baby brother try and revive your shriveled, dead love life, okay?”

Mark, in one of his less proud moments, decides to humor Jeno this once. Maybe it’s because Jeno’s clearly not completely sober, or maybe because Mark hasn’t gone on a date in much too long anyway, but he takes a sip of the concoction that’s in his cup before he replies an affirmative.

“Sure, Jen, whatever you want.” He grimaces because it takes like something of a mix of warm beer and vodka, and it’s nothing short of revolting. Mark carefully puts the cup on a table when Jeno’s distracted, never to touch it again.

“Jaemin! Jaem! Over here!” Jeno shouts, making Mark’s eyes dart up from where he’s been inspecting the patterns on the floor tiles.

Out of the crowd then emerges a man with a chiseled jaw, shining brown eyes, and a wide grin who scoops up Jeno in a hug despite them being nearly the same height. It isn’t until Mark catches sight of faded, pastel pink hair peeking out from his backwards snapback that the realization.

Unceremoniously, Mark chokes on his own tongue.

He looks exactly like the character that he designed, and it takes his breath away. Jeno’s saying something in the background about him being a dance major and having attended the same university as Jeno and Donghyuck, but Mark is only half listening.

“Mark!” Jeno yells. “This is Jaemin! Jaemin, this is my older brother, Mark!”

“Nice to meet you finally!” Jaemin greets him with an awkward handshake that makes even Jeno wince.

“Ah, you too, and hey—”

Before Mark can finish vocalizing his thought about the similarity between Jaemin and his NANA, Donghyuck parades back over and drags both Jeno and Jaemin off—claiming something about seeing an old college friend named Injun, who Mark vaguely remembers meeting a couple of times. Deciding that he’s just too tired or maybe he didn’t see Jaemin properly in the awful, colored lighting that Jeno has set up, Mark sets off in search of a less rowdy place to take a seat.

The living room proves to be one of the quieter places that Mark can find, albeit not by much. The music is a little quieter, and Mark can actually think over the pounding of the bass, which is always nice, and it’s here that Jaemin finds him.

“You don’t look like you’re having much fun,” he comments, squeezing himself into the space on the cushion between Mark and the arm of the loveseat that he’s sitting in. Mark levels him with a look.

“I wonder what gave it away,” Mark deadpans over the rim of his cup as he takes another small sip. This drink is slightly more tolerable than the one Jeno had handed him earlier, and it helps take the edge off, so Mark lets himself indulge a little, taking care to remember that he has to drive home tonight still.

“Let loose a little bit, Mark!” Jaemin exclaims, hopping up. “Let’s go dance or something!” In an unexpected feat of strength, Jaemin pulls Mark to his feet.

“Nope. No way.” Mark shakes his head. “Dancing is the one thing I don’t do.”

“No one’s going to care, and even if they did, they’re not going to remember in the morning.”

“Why are you so invested in this anyway?” Mark asks, raising his cup a bit as a gesture. “What’s in it for you?”

“I get to spend an evening dancing with a really cute guy, I guess.” Jaemin shrugs with a smile that lets Mark know he’s not telling him everything.

“That was greasy.” Mark wrinkles his nose. “Did Jeno put you up to this?” 

“What? No, no, of course not! I didn’t even know that he was going to introduce us until he called me over.”

“Well my question still stands then.” Mark quirks an eyebrow. “What’s in it for you?”

“In Jeno’s stories you’ve always been the uptight, sensible one. I wanna know what fun Mark is like,” is the simple explanation that Jaemin gives him. Mark raises his eyebrow at the implication that Jeno tells stories about Mark to friends that don’t even know him.

“I’m fun,” he protests, frowning. “I just don’t think I have to be drunk or go dancing to be fun.”

“Drinking’s got nothing to do with it, but dancing is a really great way to let go of things and express yourself!” Jaemin urges, tugging Mark out of the living room and down the hallway to where the dance floor has been set up in one of the spare rooms that Jeno and Donghyuck have yet to determine a real use for.

“What if I have nothing to express?” At this point, Mark is just being ornery by continuing to object because he’s following Jaemin along without a fight. All of a sudden, Mark stumbles over something on the ground, and he looks down to see that his shoelaces became untied at some point. “Hey, hey, Jaem, hold on.”

“We’re at the nickname stage already?” Jaemin laughs, teasing. Mark just reaches over to whack his calf when he kneels down to re-tie it. While he’s down, he sees a commotion out of the corner of his eye, and at the center of it all is someone that Mark never expected to see again.

As far as he knew, Yuta had moved back to Japan after he and Mark had dated briefly during college, and he had absolutely no reason to be at his brother’s housewarming party because he’d never even  _ met _ Jeno or Donghyuck. The get-together had been fast and the split had been ugly on both sides, and Mark had been doing a great job of blocking that relationship out of his memory until now. Unfortunately, not thinking about it doesn’t mean that Yuta just disappears, and it’s only a matter of time before Yuta looks over and sees Mark.

Mark stands abruptly, leaving his shoe untied, and looks to Jaemin in a panic—and when he panics, his brain-to-mouth filter turns down to zero.

“I need you to kiss me,” he says at the exact same time Jaemin opens his mouth to say,

“We need to leave.” 

“What?”

_ “What?” _

“I can’t leave without being spotted, so I need you to kiss me right now,” Mark commands before realizing he probably sounds like a complete asshole and the nerves set in as he backtracks. “I mean, only if you’re okay with it, because if you don’t want to then you don’t have to—”

“No, no, I’d love to, but why? We need to go—”

Mark’s eyes nervously flit back to where Yuta is standing, greeting some people in the living room. He clearly hasn’t seen Mark yet, but it can’t be long before he turns around and sees him there.

“Please,” he begs, cutting off Jaemin’s protests. 

Mark can see Jaemin’s resolve crumble down at their feet, turning to pieces on the shag carpeting of the hallway. His shoulders sink and his head drops down for a moment as he breathes out.

“Okay, okay,” he murmurs, almost to himself before straightening back up. “Ready?”

“As I’ll ever be,” Mark concedes, but takes great care in making sure that Jaemin has the freedom to make the first move. The last thing he wants to do is force this upon him.

Jaemin reaches forward timidly, cupping Mark’s cheek and pulling him into the most memorable—if not the best—kiss he’s ever experienced. It’s gentle, but not timid, and Jaemin’s confidence only grows when Mark blindly reaches out to find purchase on Jaemin’s shoulders, drawing them even closer together. 

Somehow, somewhere, sometime, Mark loses track of everything. He doesn’t care about Yuta, he doesn’t care about the party because all he can focus on is Jaemin—how he tastes against Mark’s tongue, how he feels under Mark’s palms, how sounds under Mark’s lips. He’s more intoxicating than any alcoholic concoction Jeno can whip up, and Mark’s addicted.

Neither of them pay much attention to anyone else after that. The rest of the night is a blur of dancing and making out, the snippets in between reserved for quiet conversation murmured into each other’s mouths or skin.

The only other drink Mark has is when he takes a body shot off of Jaemin. Neither of them make it particularly easy on themselves because they can’t stop laughing through the whole thing, making it a challenge for Mark to get his mouth on the little pile of salt just above his navel where his t-shirt is rucked up. And once Mark does manage to pin down Jaemin’s hips for long enough to drag his tongue against the soft skin before immediately taking a diluted shot. He grimaces even at the watered-down taste of Jeno’s favorite vodka, and leans down to grab the lime from Jaemin’s mouth—the shape of the wedge matches his blinding smile afterwards.

“So…” Mark starts, nudging Jaemin with his shoulder as they finally make their way out of the penthouse together after saying goodbye to Jeno and Donghyuck. “You’d ‘love to’ kiss me, was it?” He’s just teasing by bringing that back up, but the look in Jaemin’s eye is a little too mischievous to tell if he’s taking it the same way.

“Yeah, and I’ve been kissing you all night,” Jaemin points out, lacing his fingers with Mark’s to yank him into the stairwell before pushing him back against the door. “And I’d love to do it again.”

“You’re confident,” Mark snorts.

“What an astute observation,” Jaemin quips back, flicking Mark’s ear as he leans close enough for their lips to brush.

“I’m sure I could make—”

“Hey, Mark?”

“Hmm?”

“Shut up.”

“Make me.”

And Mark can’t deny that,  _ oh, _ Jaemin does just that.

  
  


* * *

  
  
  


Now that Mark has been…  _ acquainted _ with Jaemin, he seems to see him everywhere. Jaemin’s in the small dance ensemble with some of the biggest idol names in Korea, he’s the choreographer for a new musical film coming out, he’s in an ad on YouTube for some dance he’s doing at a prestigious studio in LA, he’s even in the grocery store down the street that Mark frequents at two in the morning when Mark decides his craving for chips has to be satisfied before he can keep working on his project. 

“Mark? Mark Lee?” A voice asks and Mark nearly drops the bag of chips he just grabbed. It’s a distinct possibility that he’s been regretting not getting Jaemin’s phone number ever since Jeno’s party and has been missing his voice.

“Jaemin?” He whirls around to see the man standing behind a shopping cart with normal groceries. Now, in normal lighting when he’s painfully sober, it’s a little weird to see him. This is partly because Mark hasn’t changed the design of his character, and the similarities are still disconcerting, but it’s also because Jaemin is stupidly freaking attractive and it almost hurts Mark’s eyes to look at him for too long.

“Hey, I thought it was you.” Jaemin grins, leaning forward to rest his forearms on the handle of the cart “How are you doing? Actually, a better question:  _ what _ are you doing?”

“What does it look like?” Mark snorts, holding up the bag of chips.

“Fair enough.” He shrugs, unbothered “Can’t fault a man for wanting midnight snacks.”

Mark, to be honest doesn’t really know how to respond to that, so he simply hums while Jaemin grabs what he needs from the aisle, deciding it would be rude to leave just like that. 

Then, Mark blinks and Jaemin’s right in front of him, and the exhale he had just been planning to take gets stuck in his throat. Their faces are close, and they’re both looking the other straight in the eye. A grin slowly spreads across Jaemin’s lips as he backs up from where he was crowding him against the shelves, and Mark can see the bag of chips in his hand. He doesn’t have to turn around to know that the bag had been sitting on the shelf behind him just moments before, so he huffs out a breath under the pretense of annoyance, but it’s more to dispel the tension than anything else.

”You’re such a dick,” Mark complains sans any bite, turning on his heel to walk away as Jaemin laughs loudly—a little too loudly for how late it is, and it rings across the mostly empty store.

“Mark, wait, come back,” Jaemin wheezes out between fits of laughter. Against his better judgement, Mark does turn and walk back to him. “Oh my  _ god, _ you should have seen your face.”

“Shut up, Jaem,” Mark groans, deliberately not looking at him.

“You looked so genuinely panicked, it was priceless.”

“I’m going to leave if you keep this up,” Mark threatens, and it seems to make Jaemin sober up a bit.

“Sorry, sorry,” he says. “I’ll just stay quiet and keep you company while you shop, yeah?”

“I’d keep to that if I were you,” Mark advises, but has to turn around before he lets the smile grow on his face enough for Jaemin to see it. 

True to promise, Jaemin stays quiet, besides a few comical quips that Mark finds as entertaining as they are unnecessary, and it’s not until they have their bags in hand and are walking out the door that Jaemin turns to Mark and speaks again.

“Can I drive you home? Oh wait that would be stupid because your car is probably—”

“I walked here, Jaem,” Mark cuts him off with a smile to stop his embarrassed rambling. 

“Oh!” He perks up. “Could I walk you home then?”

“What about your car?” Mark looks around the nearly empty parking lot, trying to guess which one is Jaemin’s.

“I walked here, too, actually,” he rushes to say, before pausing. “Not to sound too eager but…” He trails off, uncertainty evident in his gaze as he looks at Mark.

“I’d love to have you accompany me back home.” Mark grins, moving his reusable grocery bag that Jeno always teases him for to his other hand, leaving the one between them open.

Jaemin, thankfully, gets the hint, and clasps his fingers gently together with Mark’s, leaving their connected hands swinging between them. Mark glances over and finds himself a little too pleased over the blush that has spread from Jaemin’s cheeks to the tips of his ears, flaming pink in the flickering, yellowish light from the streetlamps. 

After all his bravado at the party, Mark honestly can’t fathom why Jaemin is so shy all of a sudden. It’s as if the confidence has been sapped out of Jaemin and put right into Mark because he feels like he’s on top of the world right now. And Mark doesn’t really care what this means, but he’s determined not to overthink it.

With that extra confidence, Mark proceeds to make both the best and worst decision he’s ever made in his entire life: invite Jaemin inside. 

The moment they’re alone, Mark has Jaemin caged up against the door, their grocery bags forgotten on the ground and their lips all over each other. He doesn’t fully understand what has him so hooked on Jaemin but it doesn’t matter right now because all he has the capacity to think is that he wants  _ more. _

And Jaemin eagerly delivers as Mark fumbles his way through the apartment, never losing contact with Jaemin even when they stumble into the living room. Mark knocks the back of his knees on the arm of the couch and flails backwards, taking Jaemin down with him, who laughs once they steady themselves.

“You alright?” He chuckles softly, pressing butterfly kisses all across Mark’s face. The moment feels so raw and intimate that it takes Mark’s breath away for a moment, leaving him with only the ability to nod. “Good, I—” He stops abruptly and perks his head up, every muscle in his body tensing up in unison.

“What’s up?” Mark asks, leaning up only to have Jaemin gently push his shoulder back down.

“Someone’s outside,” Jaemin whispers.

“Well, duh, it’s an apartment complex, I have neighb—” Mark starts, but then there’s a pounding on his door that makes him sit bolt upright, nearly throwing Jaemin off of him. “What the fuck, Jaem? How did you know?”

“We have to leave,” he urges, scrambling to his feet. “We have to get out of here right now. What’s a room that has a lock on the door and a window outside that’s the closest to here?”

“The office right there, but Jaemin, I don’t—hey!” Mark exclaims as Jaemin pulls him to his feet and ushers him across the hall and into the office, shutting and locking the door behind them. “What is going on?”

“I need you to listen closely and carefully, and you can’t forget a word I say.” Jaemin holds Mark by the shoulders, looking him in the eye. Something about this seems terribly familiar, but Mark can’t place it. “There’s a group of people after us, after me, all because we’re trying to get to the same thing first. I, along with my team, have been sent to take it to safety, but they’re here to use it to harm others. I’m not even from this planet, Mark, although—”

“You are human and your ancestors are from here? And you need this thing to save your race because they’re the only thing powerful enough to do it?” Mark finishes, his mind reeling. He leans back against the wall, his head in his hands. “This can’t be happening.”

“How did you know all of that?” Jaemin’s eyes widen in shock. “Are you one of them?”

“No, no,” Mark mumbles to himself. “I created you.”

“You…  _ what?” _

Mark rushes across the office to open up his computer, which still has his current project up. What Jaemin just said to him is from the opening lines of the game, which sound stupid and cliche at first, but Mark’s known for his plot twists as a game developer and he certainly hasn’t disappointed in this one. 

“You’re part of a video game I’m making, Jaemin… I know everything that’s going to happen,” Mark explains, breathless. He scrolls through his endless notes on the plot, the landscape, the characters, watching the light from the monitors reflect in Jaemin’s eyes as he tries to absorb it all. “No one else knows about this right now, so there’s no way that you could have just gotten my notes from somewhere and just be setting up an elaborate prank… right?”

There’s a crash from outside and Mark knows that his door just got broken down. He looks at Jaemin, panicked, and he just shakes his head, promising Mark that it’s all real.

A small mewl from under the desk alerts Mark to the presence of Mina, who he scoops up and cradles to his chest without a second thought.

“Will you help us?” He hisses. “I need to know now.”

“Yes,” Mark replies before he can stop himself. “Yes, I’ll help.”

“You’re the one person I didn’t want to drag into all this mess, Mark,” Jaemin sighs, hanging his head as he fishes in his pocket. “I wanted you to stay out of this insanity.”

“Yet I’m the one you need,” Mark reminds with a small smile. “Now let’s get going before we get shot, yeah?”

Jaemin nods his head emphatically at this, “so what do you say, Mark? You trust me?” He reaches out a hand, and Mark takes a deep breath, nodding as he accepts.

“I trust you, Nana.”

Jaemin grins at that, and Mark can only hope that he’ll be enough to save Jaemin’s world.

**Author's Note:**

> original prompt: character a can’t stop thinking about the love interest in his video game that looks eerily similar to character b and wait—why are the same things from the game starting to happen in real life?
> 
> have a safe winter season everyone!
> 
> (my sister reading the description: "oH mY gOd iS iT jUmAnJi?")
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/baridalive)   
>  [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/baridalive)   
>  [tumblr](https://baridalive.tumblr.com)


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